WILLIAM MCKINLEY . 1897-1901

At the 1896 Republican Convention, in time of depression, wealthy Ohio businessman Marcus Alonzo Hanna ensured the nomination William McKinley as "the advance agent of prosperity."

Born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, and was teaching in a country school when the Civil War broke out. A private in the Union Army, he was mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet major of volunteers. He studied law, opening an office in Canton, Ohio.

At 34, McKinley won a seat in Congress. His attractive personality, exemplary character, and quick intelligence enabled him to rise rapidly. He was appointed to the powerful Ways and Means Committee. During his 14 years in the House, he became the leading Republican tariff expert, giving his name to the measure enacted in 1890. The next year he was elected governor of Ohio, serving two terms.

When McKinley became president, he called Congress into special session to enact the highest tariff in history. In this friendly atmosphere, industrial combinations developed at an unprecedented pace. Newspapers caricatured McKinley as a little boy led around by "Nursie" Hanna, the representative of the trusts. However, McKinley was not dominated by Hanna; he condemned the trusts as "dangerous conspiracies against the public good."

Reporting the stalemate between Spanish forces and revolutionaries in Cuba, newspapers screamed that a quarter of the population was dead and the rest suffering acutely. Public indignation brought pressure upon McKinley for war. He delivered a message of neutral intervention in April 1898. Congress thereupon voted three resolutions tantamount to a declaration of war for the liberation and independence of Cuba. In the 100-day war, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico.

Undecided on what to do about Spanish possessions other than Cuba. McKinley toured the country and detected an imperialist sentiment. Thus the United States annexed the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. In 1900, Democratic nominee Willliam Jennings Bryan inveighed against imperialism; McKinley quietly stood for "the full dinner pail."

His second term, which had begun so auspiciously, came to a tragic end in September 1901. He was standing in a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT . 1901-1909

With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the nation's history. He brought new excitement and power to the presidency as he vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.

Born on October 27, 1858 to a wealthy New York City family, Roosevelt triumphed against ill health and became an advocate of the strenuous life. In 1884 his first wife and his mother died on the same day, and he spent the next two years on his ranch in the Badlands of Dakota Territory mastering his sorrow as he drove cattle and hunted big game. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt led the Rough Rider Regiment on a charge at the battle of San Juan. He was one of the most conspicuous heroes of the war.

As president, Roosevelt held the ideal that the government should be the arbiter between capital and labor, guaranteeing justice to each and dispensing favors to none. He emerged spectacularly as a "trust buster." In foreign policy, Roosevelt steered the United States more actively into world politics. He liked to quote a favorite proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick. . ."

Aware of the need for a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific, Roosevelt ensured the construction of the Panama Canal. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, reached a Gentleman's Agreement on immigration with Japan, and sent the Great White Fleet on a goodwill tour of the world. But some of Roosevelt's most effective achievements were in conservation. He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects. "The life of strenuous endeavor" was a must for those around him, as he romped with his children and led ambassadors on hikes through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D. C.

Leaving the presidency in 1909, Roosevelt went on an African safari. In 1912 he ran for president on a Progressive ticket. He said that he felt as fit as a bull moose, the name of his new party. While campaigning in Milwaukee, he was shot in the chest by a fanatic. Roosevelt recovered, but his words at that time would have been applicable at his death in 1919: "No man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way."

He took the view that the president as a "steward of the people" should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution. "I did not usurp power," he wrote, "but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power."

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT . 1909-1913

Distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft was caught in the battles between progressives and conservatives and got scant credit for the achievements of his administration.

Born on September 15, 1857, the son of a distinguished Cincinnati judge, Taft graduated from Yale, and returned to Ohio to study and practice law. He rose in politics through Republican judiciary appointments by his own competence and also, as he once wrote facetiously, because he always had his "plate the right side up when offices were falling."

Taft preferred law to politics, and he aspired to be a member of the Supreme Court. His route to the White House was via administrative posts. President McKinley sent him to the Philippines in 1900 as chief civil administrator. Sympathetic toward the Filipinos, he improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the people at least some participation in government. President Roosevelt made him secretary of war in 1907, and the Republican Convention nominated him the next year.

Taft disliked the campaign, but pledged his fealty to the Roosevelt program. Progressives were pleased with Taft's election. "Roosevelt has cut enough hay," they said; "Taft is the man to put it into the barn." Conservatives were delighted to be rid of Roosevelt - the "mad messiah." Taft recognized, too, that his techniques would differ from those of his predecessor. Unlike Roosevelt, he did not believe in the stretching of presidential powers.

By defending the Payne-Aldrich Act, which unexpectedly continued high tariff rates, Taft alienated many liberal Republicans who later formed the Progressive Party. He further antagonized progressives by upholding his secretary of the interior, accused of failing to carry out Roosevelt’s conservation policies. In the angry Progressive onslaught against him, little attention was paid to the fact that his administration initiated 80 antitrust suits and that Congress submitted to the states amendments for a federal income tax and the direct election of senators. A postal savings system was established, and the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to set railroad rates.

In 1912, when the Republicans re-nominated Taft, Roosevelt bolted the party to lead the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson. Taft, free of the presidency, served as professor of law at Yale until President Harding made him chief justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: "I don't remember that I ever was President."